2. What to include in package. Motherboard, copies of all EPoX RMA forms and/or copy of this email, sales invoice, Check or money order for any applicable charges (Payable to EPoX International, Inc in US dollars drawn from US bank).
Total charges (S/H): $14.00
:thumbsdow
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
I'm fairly skilled w/ a soldering iron. I need to replace at least 4 caps:
I would contact the mfr and request a defective with exchange RMA from them if in warranty-- and if in warranty you are likely to get at least a board that is tested after being repaired back. If they offer instead to replace the caps, ask them if they will guarantee the caps replacement will be under the mobo warranty. If they will not guarantee board after caps replacement, or it is out of waranty, I would say do it very carefully with a HS clip on component side of board in place myself. Most honest answer I can give you, shwaip. Some mfrs will not guarantee out of warranty bench work, period, unless you pay them a test and revalidation fee also. But with an RMA within warranty, at least you will get a tested though possibly repaired board back. Could be even same board with new caps will come back if they can test it good after replacing "defective" caps.
Point is, if you are going to pay at all you want tested and warranteed work done. Otherwise you might as well take the risk on yourself and be out less money for just parts if it was otherwise damaged due to bad caps failing and damaging other things as they failed and it is already out of warranty.
I always approach mfrs with due cause (defect) exchange of board on anything in warranty, including onboard power circuitry failure which I would report this as with no further comment (send them the pic you posted to prove failure, and with no comment as to how you think it might have happened unless they ask). If they ask, you do not know for sure exactly how the total failure set which they may determine happened occured on that board at that time-- and since it is not all the caps, that you think it was very probably not a PSU-failure related thing. Period.
They need to determine the exact cause from physical evidence themselves for sure if they can and fix the problem when they get the board, that is part of what a buyer pays for, is warranty. If nothing other than caps are damaged, then likely they will exchange the board out and resell the one you shipped after repair and revalidation with a refurb serial number, or just TRASH the board shipped in to them under RMA.
Sourcing hint, if you buy from JameCo, the caps are cheap there. Thier presales tech support can even take brand and part number from cap and give you equiv in what they carry as far as brand. They have many brand-to-brand and brand-to-generic XREFs themselves and are willing to look that up for customers.
anyone have any suggestions for a store/website whence I can get these caps?
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Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
edited June 2004
I would do a DIY reCAPPING then. The one thing about soldering CAPS is if you heat the internals of the caps while soldering the leg too much (by heat conducted by the leg into the cap), you can get a mess in re cap performance and lifetime. One of the things I was taught is that with CAPS you almost always want a clipon heat sink between the CAP and motherboard on each leg as you solder it on back side of board-- they do not need to be hyper-tight to board unless you have metal they would otherwise contact once the board they are on is mounted-- that top contact shorting should not be the case with a motherboard EVER. I was also told never to use silver bearing solder on caps, due to the melting temp of silver bearing solder being so high. AND to use a REAL finely tipped iron and real fine solder diameter. Other than that, it is not difficult so long as you get truely equivalent caps to originals.
What I got to practice on was surface solder and\or foil trace and contact padded boards, ancient ones, and hardest thing was not to melt the traces or mount pads off. They deliberately set up a situation by what they supplied to work with where if the iron was held in one place too long the foil, surface mounted, contact pads would melt.
That was a very good lesson in quickness and just enough heat and right solder as to melt temp and volume mitigating heat damage when doing reworks. Most caps burst from overheat on install at rework or internal or external outright defects than from anything else, and O\H can happen at rework time. That is all I will say about that, except that I use .021" to .030 inch 60\40 diameter solder for caps. With .044 I get more heat problems and you do not need a big buildup for cap legs. Also, I clip the legs AFTER soldering and leave about 1\16"-5\64" of leg beyond solder joint. I've also been known to frequently bend two cap legs on underside of board, leave bent to keep cap and clipon HS from falling off board while soldering first leg, let cool, then unbend and solder one leg at a time until all are soldered right and solder is nice and shiny on all three cap joints.
You can get em from Digikey almost for sure, www.digikey.com. Also active electronics (dunno if they're in the US). They're overpriced but have a good selection.
Shwaip, you will need to change all of those big caps, not just the failed ones. The ones that haven't yet failed will fail eventually, guarranteed.
What model board is that Epox? If it's a 8KHA+, then I can desolder the caps on my board that they had tried to fix unsuccessfully , which cost me the same $14 plus shipping to send to them to fix it and send them to you. If it isn't a KHA+, then let me know the ratings on the caps; they might be the same as the ones they replaced on my mobo. I'd like to see some good use out of the money I spent on shipping my 8KHA+ to be fixed. Screw Epox and their caps, they don't guarrantee that the board will work if you send it to them.
Comments
I also may fix it, sell/give the board + RAM to my dad, and then buy a new one + pc3200 ram.
:thumbsdow
I would contact the mfr and request a defective with exchange RMA from them if in warranty-- and if in warranty you are likely to get at least a board that is tested after being repaired back. If they offer instead to replace the caps, ask them if they will guarantee the caps replacement will be under the mobo warranty. If they will not guarantee board after caps replacement, or it is out of waranty, I would say do it very carefully with a HS clip on component side of board in place myself. Most honest answer I can give you, shwaip. Some mfrs will not guarantee out of warranty bench work, period, unless you pay them a test and revalidation fee also. But with an RMA within warranty, at least you will get a tested though possibly repaired board back. Could be even same board with new caps will come back if they can test it good after replacing "defective" caps.
Point is, if you are going to pay at all you want tested and warranteed work done. Otherwise you might as well take the risk on yourself and be out less money for just parts if it was otherwise damaged due to bad caps failing and damaging other things as they failed and it is already out of warranty.
I always approach mfrs with due cause (defect) exchange of board on anything in warranty, including onboard power circuitry failure which I would report this as with no further comment (send them the pic you posted to prove failure, and with no comment as to how you think it might have happened unless they ask). If they ask, you do not know for sure exactly how the total failure set which they may determine happened occured on that board at that time-- and since it is not all the caps, that you think it was very probably not a PSU-failure related thing. Period.
They need to determine the exact cause from physical evidence themselves for sure if they can and fix the problem when they get the board, that is part of what a buyer pays for, is warranty. If nothing other than caps are damaged, then likely they will exchange the board out and resell the one you shipped after repair and revalidation with a refurb serial number, or just TRASH the board shipped in to them under RMA.
Sourcing hint, if you buy from JameCo, the caps are cheap there. Thier presales tech support can even take brand and part number from cap and give you equiv in what they carry as far as brand. They have many brand-to-brand and brand-to-generic XREFs themselves and are willing to look that up for customers.
/me double posts again
anyone have any suggestions for a store/website whence I can get these caps?
What I got to practice on was surface solder and\or foil trace and contact padded boards, ancient ones, and hardest thing was not to melt the traces or mount pads off. They deliberately set up a situation by what they supplied to work with where if the iron was held in one place too long the foil, surface mounted, contact pads would melt.
That was a very good lesson in quickness and just enough heat and right solder as to melt temp and volume mitigating heat damage when doing reworks. Most caps burst from overheat on install at rework or internal or external outright defects than from anything else, and O\H can happen at rework time. That is all I will say about that, except that I use .021" to .030 inch 60\40 diameter solder for caps. With .044 I get more heat problems and you do not need a big buildup for cap legs. Also, I clip the legs AFTER soldering and leave about 1\16"-5\64" of leg beyond solder joint. I've also been known to frequently bend two cap legs on underside of board, leave bent to keep cap and clipon HS from falling off board while soldering first leg, let cool, then unbend and solder one leg at a time until all are soldered right and solder is nice and shiny on all three cap joints.
What model board is that Epox? If it's a 8KHA+, then I can desolder the caps on my board that they had tried to fix unsuccessfully